The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade reminds that since January 1, 2019, the overwhelming majority of the standards and technical specifications of the Soviet Union - All-Union State Standards (GOST), developed before 1992, have become obsolete in Ukraine.

The necessity of termination of the All-Union State Standards on the territory of Ukraine was determined by the Action Program of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In line with the document, in 2015 the State Enterprise Ukrainian Scientific-Research and Training Center of Standardization, Certification and Quality (State Enterprise UkrNDNC), which serves as the National Standardization Authority, issued respective orders to repeal GOSTs with termination of their validity during 2016 - 2018 and full refusal from them, starting from January 1, 2019. In total there should have been canceled 12,090 All-Union State Standards.

Meanwhile, in order to reduce the risks for business, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in advance offered all interested parties to submit their proposals for the abolition of All-Union State Standards that have become obsolete. In addition, the National Standardization Authority has consistently provided clarification and advice on issues arising from the abolition of GOSTs.

During 2016-2018, proposals were submitted to the National Standardization Authority to extend the validity of certain GOSTs. As a result of consultations, the National Standardization Authority has issued a number of orders according to which 1173 All-Union State Standards remain in force as of January 1, 2019.

Such GOSTs will be valid until January 1, 2022. In particular, these are the standards for replacing of which there are currently being developed or expected to be developed projects of the relevant national standards; standards with references in regulatory acts; Standards of the Unified System of Design Documents; Standards developed in due time based on international standards, the versions of which are relevant in our time.

Since the continuation of the Soviet Union GOSTs after 2022 is impossible, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the National Standardization Authority strongly recommend that all interested parties, that use GOSTs in their work, take advantage of the recommendations placed on the sites of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and UkrNDNC and find an alternative to the use of outdated standards that are actually regulatory acts of a non-existent state and contradict the innovations introduced in the sector of technical regulation of Ukraine and Ukraine's commitment to reform the sphere of technical standardization envisaged by the WTO Agreement and the Association Agreement with the EU.

At the same time, if a national standard is necessary to draft any interested party (authorities, producers associations, enterprises, public organizations, etc.) may act as the requestor for the development of such a standard in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Standardization" to replace the relevant All-Union State Standard.